By Meg Mitchell The Maine Mobile Health Program works across the state to provide equitable healthcare to underserved populations, including farmworkers and rural communities. While they’ve been in operation for 39 years, their work is growing more necessary due to the overlap of climate change, agriculture, and healthcare. As an agricultural service provider with MOFGA,
By Lauren Cormier In early March 2025 Bowdoinham-based horticulturalist Blaine Fortin passed away, leaving behind a 30-year pear-breeding legacy in need of preservation for the future. MOFGA’s Maine Heritage Orchard, a 10-acre preservation orchard in Unity, Maine, is already home to 30 pears and now another pear preservation project is underway. Those involved with the
By Sonja Heyck-Merlin “When you’re at a plant sale, people can literally watch the bumble bees coming to these plants before they’re planted in the ground. It’s instant gratification,” says Molly DellaRoman of 5 Star Nursery and Orchard, a MOFGA-certified native plant nursery in Brooklin, Maine. It’s not just the pollinators DellaRoman loves but everything
By Tim King Lineage is vitally important to Akilah Zuri Campbell of the Zuri Wingi Heritage Harvest Project in Lee, New Hampshire. The object of the project, she says, is to bring the crops and the agricultural wisdom of stories from the African Diaspora and Indigenous population to the region as it is today. “My
By Sam(antha) Burns During lambing season, I wake every two hours to check the lamb-cams for “activity,” anxiously watching for signs of labor or newborn lambs. Video cameras and Wi-Fi extenders are two of the best investments I’ve made in shepherding, but really the most valuable asset has been the accruing knowledge that only comes
By Lea Camille Smith In the Northeast, it’s easy to assume that once the frost hits and the farmers’ markets close, access to local food goes dormant. But Noah and Sophie Courser-Kellerman of Alprilla Farm in Warner, New Hampshire, have turned that notion on its head. While their farm tasks — planting, harvesting, storing, and
By Holli Cederholm Gone are the days when every farmer saved their own seed to replant the following season. Gone, too, are the accompanying practices of selecting seed to meet the needs of a particular farm. Most growers have swapped the annual ritual of harvesting their own seed — and of perhaps pooling that seed
By Jennifer Dann For good reason, local is a big part of MOFGA’s vision: supporting local farming can make us healthier and more resilient as families and communities. Buying locally grown food is a great way for people to support local farming systems. Another great way to support your community and the surrounding landscape is
By Tim King In 2024, 82% of American households purchased organic produce, according to an impact report issued by the Transition to Organic Partnership Program last year. The report states that the percentage will continue to increase and that demand has “consistently outpaced domestic production capacity” for organic. TOPP was founded by the U.S. Department
By Sonja Heyck-Merlin A new community garden initiative in Van Buren, Maine, cultivates not just food but also relationships. In a town where residents rarely gathered, fresh vegetables and beehives now bring people together. Luke Dyer, Van Buren’s town manager, and others involved in community revitalization call it placemaking: creating public spaces to grow and
